


Falling

by anonemone



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 08:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7883941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonemone/pseuds/anonemone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>five men and their relationship with falling, in five drabbles</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling

_**1.** _

In a way, Steve thinks, it’s fitting. He couldn’t save Bucky from falling, and now he has to fall to save the world.

He would rather fall a thousand times over than watch somebody else do it for him.

He angles the nose down, takes one last look at his open compass, and then—

 

_**2.** _

There was a period in Tony Stark’s life, sometime near the start of the 90s, when the people who cared about him (so, Rhodey, and, he thought back then, Obie) were careful about letting him near ledges, just as they were careful about alcohol and needles and sharp things in general. Cars, too.

Never let it be said that his issues started with the superheroing business.

He gets over his thing with heights eventually, because when your job entails jetting around the world on the regular and your best friend’s job entails piloting planes into active war zones, you gotta suck some things up, no matter how messed up you are. His issues change, become sand and water and a lack of windows.

Then he falls through a wormhole.

 

_**3.** _

On good days, he dreamt of falling.

On bad days, it was ice, and chains, and chairs, the scope of a rifle and the feeling of a life going out underneath his metal fingers.

But sometimes, he dreamt of reaching up and holding on, of a hand so, so close to saving him. His hair was still short.

The last thing he sees before falling is Steve’s face.

Those nights he doesn’t wake up screaming.

 

_**4.** _

Rhodey has known this was a possibility since he was 16 and chose Air Force ROTC.

Of course, he’d hoped he’d have a parachute (which, he’s gotta talk to Tony about that; it seems like such a simple oversight to not have one with a manual release or something packed in beside his machine gun), but whether from a plane or in a flying suit of armor, it’s all the same, and he’s had nearly four decades to come to terms with the fact that when he dies, it would probably be from a failure to miss the ground.

He doesn’t die. His military career in the field does, and he’s not sure he wants to get back to the whole superheroing gig, but he hits the ground and Tony picks him back up. Tony builds him new legs, and Rhodey tries them out, three hours of physical therapy a day. He stumbles, but Tony is always there to catch him, and he thinks, this kind of falling he didn’t mind.

 

_**5.** _

There is always a split second, in the air, when he’s falling.

The EXO-7 is not exactly a jet pack; it was always meant to function more as a glider. He gets off the ground, the thrusters cut out mid-air at the top of an arc, and he’s falling. Then there’s a kick, and he’s riding his fall, fooling gravity and aerodynamics enough to let him stay in the air for a little while longer.

People think he’s scared of falling. They look at him and think they see Riley, wings shot out, just out of his reach. They don’t see how he saw Riley without his wings and dived after him.

Sam sees people fall, and he jumps after them.

He’s Pararescue, after all.


End file.
